My 1999

Sure enough, more and more people asked about the price.

The first one to ask was MGM.

After Kerkorian made his fortune by acquiring the dilapidated MGM, and then made a profit by acquiring United Artists, one of the eight dilapidated Hollywood giants, he became very fond of this dilapidated Hollywood giant.

In the first contact between the two parties, Kerkorian offered $11.2 billion.

Vivendi thought his price was low and refused.

In early July, MGM raised its acquisition bid, but Vivendi still rejected it because the bid was too low.

After several rounds of negotiations, MGM's offer was never able to meet Vivendi Group's expectations, and the deal finally broke up.

Immediately afterwards, Liberty Media Company, unwilling to accept failure, came to the door again.

But this time it's not themselves, but NBC, a subsidiary of General Electric.

After the acquisition is successful, Vivendi's Universal Entertainment division will be integrated into a new company jointly held by both parties, including Universal Entertainment, Universal Studios, cable TV channels, Universal Music and theme parks.

However, the two parties were never able to reach an agreement on the purchase price and shareholding ratio, and finally shelved the deal.

After several consecutive failures, Liberty Media's executives were so disappointed that they gave up completely.

But GE hasn't given up yet.

Before Vivendi's financial crisis broke out, it had been pursuing the idea of ​​NBC, a subsidiary of GE. However, GE, which was not short of money, never sold it, and U.S. law did not allow foreign companies and individuals to own U.S. companies. TV station.

So it has been unsuccessful.

Now that Vivendi is in trouble, GE is interested in acquiring Vivendi's entertainment assets.

Media giants owning not only a movie studio but also a radio and television network is a new trend in the American media industry in the past decade.

For example, News Corporation owns the FOX television network and 20th Century Fox.

Time Warner, which owns CNN, Turner Networks and Warner Bros.

Disney owns ABC and Walt Disney Pictures.

There are many successful examples, which also stimulated GE's ambitions.

Once the acquisition is successful, a media giant that includes a series of heavyweight entertainment businesses such as NBC, Universal Studios, CNBC cable channel, USA TV channel and science fiction TV channel, with a market value of more than 40 billion US dollars, will appear in the Hollywood and American media markets. .

The only thing that makes Vivendi dissatisfied is that GE does not want Universal Music Group.

Now the global music market is deteriorating under the impact of MP3. The five major music giants with a market value of more than 10 billion US dollars three years ago still had a market value of more than 10 billion US dollars, but now they have shrunk by nearly 70%.

And there's still no end in sight.

It's normal that GE doesn't want it.

But in this way, the cash received by Vivendi will be greatly reduced, with only US$3.8 billion in cash.

Although 20% of the new company NBCUniversal's shares are also valuable, it is still better than cash.

If no other agency shows up.

Jean Foch pinched his nose and accepted this merger plan worth US$14 billion.

After all, GE’s bid was the highest after one year.

But just when the two parties signed the contract, Hongmeng jumped out.

Good memories came to mind, and Jean Foch immediately terminated negotiations with GE.

He longs for a replay between Hongmeng and GE. When Hongmeng competed with Google for Vivendi Games, they raised the price of the game company that could only sell for US$2.5 billion to US$3.2 billion.

Unfortunately, when he was desperate, Hongmeng actually offered 9 billion US dollars, and then refused to pay.

If it weren't for the fact that Vivendi is also a shareholder of Hongmeng, he would have kicked away Hongmeng's negotiators.

$9 billion? Who do you look down on?

I want to give up, but I don’t want to.

He also got the news that Hongmeng was acquiring MGM, so he wanted to wait.

If Hongmeng’s acquisition of MGM does not go smoothly, it will definitely turn to Vivendi.

Only then will the acquisition you are looking forward to officially come.

"Dong dong..."

There was a rapid knock on the door.

"Come in."

Jean Foch said tiredly.

The secretary opened the door and walked in immediately.

"BOOS, I just received the news that Hongmeng has officially withdrawn from the acquisition."

"What?"

The shocked Jean Foch immediately took the document from the secretary's hand.

After taking a look, it was indeed what he said.

The above is the document indicating that Hongmeng officially withdraws from acquisition negotiations.

"When did you receive this?"

"Just ten minutes ago."

Jean Foch was still in disbelief. It was clear that just a few days ago, there were rumors throughout the United States that Google was holding acquisition negotiations with MGM, and both parties were progressing smoothly.

Why did Hongmeng withdraw from the negotiations? Did they reach an acquisition agreement with MGM in just a few days?

Jean Foch immediately called Xie Wen.

The other party gave him an affirmative answer.

I called Xu Liang again, but did not get through.

After making a few phone calls, Jean Foch had to accept that his wish had failed.

——

"Mr. Xu, Jean Foch just called me. Judging from his tone, he is really anxious and surprised by our choice." Xie Wen said on the phone.

"Haha, it's normal to be shocked. I would be the same if I were in his position."

After responding.

"Mr. Xu, if after the acquisition is completed, if GE defaults...?"

"It doesn't matter if he breaks the contract, as long as he is willing to pay twice the liquidated damages." Xu Liang said calmly.

Hongmeng has developed to this day, and the company’s legal team has been very complete.

Contracts that can pass their repeated review will basically have no loopholes.

Coupled with the secret review by the legal department of Hongyan Fund, Xu Liangcai signed the contract after no problems were found.

Once GE breaches the contract and fails to hand over the three assets of Universal Pictures, Universal Music Group, and Universal Studios to him, GE will compensate twice the entire acquisition price, which is approximately US$30 billion in liquidated damages.

This is obviously impossible.

Xie Wen also felt that his worries were unnecessary, so he did not continue this topic.

"Then do you want to retain the MGM acquisition team?"

Xu Liang thought about it briefly and said, "Keep it. Let's talk about it after the matter has settled."

"That's fine."

After the two chatted for a while, Xu Liang hung up the phone.

After pondering for a moment, he turned his head.

"Lu Hui, help me contact representatives from Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and Morgan. I will talk to them in half a month."

"OK."

Lu Hui left in a hurry.

Although when talking to the elder Gates, he said that he would take back half of Hongmeng's shares from the three financial giants, in fact he had no intention of doing so.

If a Chinese company acquires Hollywood's top film company, as well as two famous brands, Universal Music and Universal Studios, you can imagine how big a stir it will cause in the United States.

Although the complaints and dissatisfaction of the assholes cannot hinder the overall situation.

But I am afraid that powerful people such as Larry Ellison, Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, and even George Soros will take the opportunity to stir up trouble.

No, it should be said that they will definitely get involved.

If you want to suppress these powerful people, you must win over more people to endorse this acquisition.

Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Morgan, Merrill Lynch, and even GE, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, whom I met once.

In a word, Xu Liang plans to use this acquisition to cash out the relationships that Hanhua has built up in the past.

——

Without the constraints of Hongmeng, and GE had been talking to Vivendi Global for a long time before Xu Liang intervened, it took only eight days for the two parties to negotiate all the conditions.

For $15 billion, GE acquired all U.S. entertainment assets including Universal Pictures, Universal Music Group, Universal Studios, American Network, and 10% of Echostar Communications.

The contract was signed and quickly caused a sensation in the global business community.

It was ranked second among the top ten business mergers and acquisitions in the world by the Wall Street Journal, second only to the Bank of America merger and acquisition.

Just half a month ago, Bank of America acquired the commercial bank holding company 'Boston Fleet Financial Corporation' in exchange for 0.5553 common shares for 1 share, creating the third largest merger and acquisition in the history of the U.S. banking industry and giving birth to the U.S. The second largest bank, occupying the top spot in the United States in banking retail business.

The entire merger and acquisition case involves an acquisition amount of US$46.961 billion.

It was the largest acquisition in 2003.

With 23 days left until the end of 2003, there will basically be no bigger acquisitions.

——

The luxuriously decorated room was filled with smoke, which dyed the white crystal chandeliers with a light cyan color.

Larry Page frowned. As a technical geek, he didn't have the habit of smoking and didn't like such an environment very much.

But in public, it is not good for him to interfere with everyone for his own selfish purposes.

After coughing, Page turned her head.

"Lu, why do you really have no idea why Hongmeng withdrew its acquisition of Vivendi Global?"

Lu Xiaobo shook his head and looked at everyone's suspicious eyes.

"I swear in the name of God, I really don't know why."

"Scoff. People all over the world know that Chinese people have no faith." Sergey Brin laughed.

Lu Xiaobo looked angry, but he still endured it.

"Because of this matter, I have asked Xu Liang and Xie Wen respectively, as well as all the company executives I know. Most people don't know the reason, and Xu Liang answered me that he has given up investing in the pan-entertainment industry.

We plan to invest the saved funds in search engine, e-commerce and other businesses, and build nine data centers in major countries around the world to enhance Hongmeng’s data processing capabilities. "

The last words made Eric Schmidt, Brin and Page look ugly for a moment.

Although Google received US$1.2 billion from Ellison through Series C financing, plus the Series B money and its own profits, the total liquidity is only US$2 billion.

However, Hongmeng’s reserve capital is as high as 15.7 billion U.S. dollars, and combined with the profits of major companies, it is close to 20 billion U.S. dollars.

If all this money is spent on Hongmeng’s major businesses.

It will definitely allow them to achieve explosive growth.

Wait for Hongmeng to occupy the market and wait for customers to form usage habits.